Violent Exposure (22 page)

Dennis knocked again, harder.

Half a minute later the front door opened and a stocky and sweating man in his mid-fifties looked out. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Gus Bielecki?’ Dennis showed his badge and gave their names. ‘We’d like to talk to you about Emil Page.’

‘Is he okay?’

‘Perhaps we could come in?’ Ella said.

‘Well, sure,’ Gus said, and opened the door wide.

The kitchen had lime-green benchtops and darker green lino on the floor. He pulled out chairs for them, then sat down himself at the round table. ‘Oh, sorry. I’m forgetting my manners. Can I get you tea or coffee?’

‘We’re fine,’ Dennis said.

Ella nodded at the beads of sweat on Gus’s forehead.
‘You look like you might have been busy when we knocked.’ Gus raised his T-shirt to blot his face, exposing a hairy stomach from which Ella looked away. ‘I play electric guitar. It can get pretty warm when you go hard.’

‘Your neighbour ever complain?’

‘She used to, before I soundproofed the room.’ He smiled. ‘You said this was about Emil? Is he okay?’

‘When did you last see him?’

‘Monday afternoon.
I stopped by the bakery where he works to see how he was going.’

‘How was he?’ Ella said. ‘Did he seem upset or anxious about anything?’

‘Actually he was probably the happiest I’ve ever seen him,’ Gus said. ‘His boss let him come out for a bit and I bought him coffee and he told me about his flat and his cat and how much he was enjoying the work though the early mornings were tough. I ribbed
him about how next he’d get a girlfriend and he blushed, so I started ribbing him then about already having one. He said he did but it was complicated, she couldn’t decide what she wanted, but he was going to talk to her about it soon.’

‘Did you know about the situation between him and Suzanne Crawford at the nursery?’

‘Angie rang me earlier. I’m really shocked. I can’t understand how the kids
kept it from us so well.’

‘Were you also shocked about the fact that it happened?’

‘Of course, that too.’

Ella said, ‘Do you think it was Suzanne he was planning to talk to?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I assumed it was some seventeen year old. But I suppose anything’s possible.’

‘Would you say that you and Emil were close?’

‘I thought we were, but I guess my ignorance about what was happening
in his life proves me wrong.’

‘Would you think he might call you if he was in trouble?’

‘I’d like to think so, but again.’ He shrugged. ‘I may be wrong.’ Dennis’s phone rang. He looked at the screen then excused himself and went into the living room. Gus’s eyes followed him.

Ella said, ‘How long have you been at Streetlights?’

‘Two years.’

‘And where did you work before that?’

‘Nowhere,’
he said. ‘I was at uni finishing the social work degree I started in prison.’

‘Must’ve been hard.’

‘It was, but it’s been worth it. I grew up like these kids are growing up and I know what rock-bottom looks like. That’s why I was so proud of Emil for hauling himself up.’

Ella nodded. She could hear Dennis talking in a low voice in the other room. ‘You live alone?’

He nodded and grinned. ‘Girls
aren’t very tolerant of my guitar passion.’

She smiled back, then turned her head in an attempt to hear Dennis more clearly. Her gaze travelled across the kitchen bench to a plastic tub full of medication bottles.

Gus said, ‘Prison legacy.’

‘Huh?’

He nodded at the bottles. ‘Sometimes you do what you never imagined you would, just to get yourself by. I came out with hep C.’

Ella wondered if
he was referring to drugs or something else.
What did they call that? Gay until release date?
But this wasn’t a formal interview and she couldn’t pry that deeply.

Gus got up for a glass of water. ‘Want one?’

‘No, thanks,’ she said. ‘How well do you know the other kids in the program?’

‘It varies,’ he said. ‘Is there one in particular you’re referring to?’

‘We talked to a few of them earlier,
but Brooke Hayes struck me as one who’s got some things going on.’

He nodded. ‘She’s had a rough life. Abused by her dad, disbelieved by her mum, been on the streets a year now. Some kids grow an unbelievably hard shell but she’s still quite a softie.’

‘Really?’ Ella said.

‘You sound surprised.’

‘When we talked to her she seemed to be holding something back. She was quite the tough nut when
I asked her questions.’

‘She must have stuff on her mind to act like that,’ Gus said. ‘Poor kid. She left behind a little sister. I know she worries about her a lot.’

Dennis came back in and gave Ella a look that said ‘something’s up’.

Ella stood up and held out her hand. ‘Thanks for your time.’

Gus shook it. ‘Anything I can do to help.’

Outside, Dennis said, ‘The fingerprint reports are
back.’

C
ontrol sent Mick and Aidan to an address in Rushcutters Bay, where they helped another crew load an obese man with back pain, then on to St Vincent’s to collect a patient for a medical transfer.

Mick pulled into the ambulance bay and saw superintendent Ben Holland leaning against the bonnet of his station wagon and squinting in the sun. He beckoned to Mick.

‘What do you think he wants?’
Aidan said, the first words uttered between them for forty minutes.

‘Just tell Control we’re on location.’ Mick got out and slammed the door.

Ben came to meet him and drew him aside. ‘A word in your shell-like.’

‘What’s up?’ Mick said, trying to sound calm.

‘I heard what you said to Control earlier, about going to Rozelle.’ Ben gripped his arm. ‘I think it’s a damn good idea and about bloody
time. I’ve called Control and said after this case they need to put you off the road.’

Mick felt sick. ‘I made a mistake about that. I was just having a rough moment.’

‘Don’t feel bad when you’re right.’

‘Truly,’ Mick said, ‘I said it on the spur of the moment. He’s been better since. I think that was all he needed, you know? The threat is enough.’

‘Stuff that,’ Ben said. ‘I’ll come with you
if you want. We’ll sit down with that coordinator and you can have your say and then Aidan will see the error of his ways and have nothing to say in reply, and either he’ll find his new paramedic self or he’ll be out on his ear.’

Mick glanced at the truck and saw Aidan watching them.
Unfortunately he’ll have plenty to say.
‘Really, it’s fine.’

‘It’s not,’ Ben said. ‘It’s about time we got a
bit choosier about who we let through.’

‘Let’s see how he goes,’ Mick said. ‘If he keeps up his improved behaviour and attitude, then good. If not, Rozelle it is.’

Ben stared at him.

‘I take full responsibility,’ Mick said.

‘You seriously think he deserves another chance?’

No, I don’t
. ‘Yes, I do.’

Ben didn’t look convinced, but shrugged. ‘He’s your headache.’

*

‘The prints in the blood
on the knife handle match prints they found on the beer cans and all over the Crawfords’ house,’ Dennis said as Ella drove them away from Bielecki’s. ‘And I mean all over. They’re large hands, with no match in the system. They believe they’re Connor’s.’

Ella gripped the wheel. ‘That’s great.’

‘It had been wiped down before that though. They could see microscopic marks.’

‘Like by a tea towel
after being washed up?’

‘More like somebody wiping some blood off then handling it again.’

‘Bad guys are stupid,’ she said. ‘What about on the back door?’

‘Different print, found only on the inside handle,’ he said. ‘Not Suzanne’s, not Connor’s, not Bridges’, and no match in the system.’

‘We should get William’s and Lydia’s to exclude them,’ Ella said.

‘Under way,’ Dennis said. ‘They hadn’t
seen Suzanne for days though, remember? This was fresh and distinct.’

‘One of the paramedics?’

He shook his head. ‘First officers said they made sure they touched nothing.’

Ella stared out the windscreen. ‘Whose is it, then?’

‘Wish I knew,’ Dennis said. ‘And we got the Crawfords’ phone records back. Katzen’s attacking them as we speak.’

‘Did we get Bridges’ too?’ Ella was busting to see who’d
called him when they were there.

‘Separate warrant. Still going on.’

‘Dammit.’

‘What’d you find out from Gus?’

She told him about the hep C and prison reference. ‘I don’t know if he meant he slept with men or injected drugs, but he said it straight after saying that girls didn’t like his guitar. Whichever it is, man, talk about being open.’

‘I guess if he’s going to help kids because of what
he’s been through, he has to be willing to share.’

‘I guess.’

Dennis opened his notebook. ‘They gave us some addresses of internet cafes to check.’

‘Did that girl ring back? Have we managed to narrow things down at all?’

‘Nope.’

Ella sighed. She looked over and saw the page of the notebook was full. ‘Where to first?’

*

‘Help!’ Connor shouted again, then stopped for breath. His mouth was
so dry his tongue was sticking to his lips. He tasted blood and the thick saltiness made him gag. He craved water.

He listened for the sleeper’s breathing. From being so frightening at the start, it had become almost a comfort. But the breathing was slowing, and the breaths themselves were growing further apart. Connor counted in his mind. Yes, definitely further apart, and now starting to snore
as well.

He thought back to the moment the sleeper had been thrown to the floor in his house, the moment when he’d rolled onto his back and Connor had seen his hands were bound with that silver gaffer tape and seen his face too. He remembered with a start that instant of recognising him –
Emil! –
and the fear in the boy’s drugged eyes. Anger and hurt had flooded through Connor, mixed with terror
at the gun and panic at knowing Suzanne was upstairs but not asleep and might come down at any moment.

Emil. The guy had slept with Suzanne. And not just once, but repeatedly over a couple of months. As usual, Suzanne had made sure that he’d been aware, and he’d hated Emil for it and at times hated her too, if he was honest with himself.

But now – for some reason he couldn’t comprehend – he
and Emil were trapped here together.

‘Emil,’ Connor said into the darkness in the direction of the snoring.

‘So you’re starting to remember.’ The whisper came from straight in front of him.

Connor threw his head forward but, like last time, struck nothing.

‘I can see you, you know.’ The whisper came from the left now. ‘How do you think I know where to hit?’

Connor forced out a laugh. ‘You
say that like I’m a moving target.’ His swollen lips slowed his words. ‘Like it’s any kind of challenge to hit me.’

A gloved punch crunched the cartilage in his ear and knocked his head sideways and split his scalp so that he felt the rush of blood down the side of his neck.

‘That challenging enough?’ the man said.

‘Cut the tape off and then we’ll talk,’ Connor said through the pounding in
his head. ‘And yes, I remember.’

‘What do you remember?’ The voice came closer.

‘You, you scumbag.’ Connor tried again for the headbutt and received a stinging slap across the cheek for his trouble.

‘You don’t remember enough yet,’ the man whispered, and something slim and cold and blade-like was drawn across Connor’s throat, leaving a chilled line in its wake. ‘But you will.’

‘Fuck you.’

But the words felt weak, and Connor weaker still. He struggled to recall more of that night. The events must hold the key to getting out of here. But the fog was descending again, and all he could think about was water. His throat was so dry it clicked when he swallowed.

‘I need water, arsehole, or I’ll die before you’ve had all your fun.’

There was no reply.

He turned his head but caught no
sound.

No sound
.

‘Emil?’

He listened for the snoring and thought it must have stopped, then he heard just one, faint and drawn-out.

‘Emil,’ he said, and braced for a punch. ‘Emil.’

He held his breath to listen, but the room was silent except for the thump of his frightened heartbeat in his ears.

*

The first address was a small, dark place that smelled like a teen-aged boy’s bedroom. No
surprise, Ella thought, when it was full of teenaged boys playing games on the screens.

The young man on the desk had to turn on a light to see the picture of Suzanne. ‘Nope. Not on my shift anyway.’

‘How many shifts are there?’

‘It’s different every day cos we fill in for each other around uni classes,’ he said.

With a sinking heart, Ella asked him to scan and print a copy of the photo and
pin it to the wall where all the staff would see it. He gave them some extra copies, and she and Dennis thanked him, left their cards and walked out blinking into the day.

‘This is going to be a nightmare,’ she said.

‘Time for fuel.’ Dennis put his hand on the door of a coffee shop. ‘Want one?’

‘You have to ask?’

While he was inside, she looked down the street at the next internet cafe. The
places were everywhere, and no doubt most if not all had irregular staffing like the one they’d just visited. Then there were the convenience stores that had one or two computers in the back but didn’t call themselves a cafe. What if the caller had meant a place like that?

The city seemed suddenly too full of noise and bustle. She imagined the computers dotted all over the CBD, the task of locating
the one that Suzanne had used like finding a pin on the Harbour Bridge with the traffic still rushing past.

Across the street was a radiology centre. She took out her mobile. There was still no answer at her parents’ house. She tried their mobile again.

‘Ella,
bella
, how are you?’

‘Hi Mum,’ she said. ‘What’re you up to?’

‘Just out, you know.’

‘I was trying to call you earlier.’